This is a list of college football bowl games, including those proposed and defunct. Six bowl games are part of the College Football Playoff, a selection system that creates bowl matchups involving twelve of the top-ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). There are also a number of other college football postseason invitationals, as well as several all-star games.
For nearly a century, bowl games were the purview of only the very best teams, but a steady proliferation of new bowl games required more teams, with 70 participating teams by the 2010–11 bowl season, then 80 participating teams by the 2015–16 bowl season. As a result, the NCAA has steadily relaxed the criteria for bowl eligibility. Teams with a non-winning record (6–6) were allowed starting in 2010. Requirements were further reduced to allow teams with outright losing records (5–7) to be invited since 2012, with the team with the best Academic Progress Rate score (among teams with 5–7 records) to be chosen first.[1] While inviting teams without winning records to bowl games has become more commonplace, there were several losing teams who played in bowl games before the last decade's changes in bowl eligibility: 1946 Gator Bowl, South Carolina (2–3–3); 1963 Sun Bowl, SMU (4–6); 1970 Tangerine Bowl, William & Mary (5–6); and the 2001 New Orleans Bowl, North Texas (5–6).[2] For the 2016–17 bowl season, 25% of the bowl participants (20 teams) did not have a winning record.
The tables (College Football Playoff games, Other current Division I FBS bowl games) reflect changes for the 2022–23 bowl season.
Bowl games are not limited to the Bowl Subdivision; teams in the three lower divisions of the NCAA—the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), Division II, and Division III—are also allowed to participate in bowl games. The playoff structure in those three divisions discourages most high-caliber teams from participating in bowl games, as teams would rather contest for their division's national championship than play in a bowl game. The same basic guidelines for bowl eligibility apply for those contests. As of 2017, one bowl game (the Celebration Bowl) exists for FCS, four bowls serve Division II, and ten exist for teams in Division III (not including the Stagg Bowl, which is the name for the NCAA Division III Football Championship game).
Community college bowl games, not sanctioned by the NCAA, are also listed.
- ^ Kirk, Jason (22 December 2016). "Dec. 26 has the worst schedule in bowl history". SBNation.com. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
- ^ "College Football Teams Which Played in Bowl Games Despite Losing Records". thesportsseer.com. December 30, 2013. Archived from the original on November 13, 2017 – via Wayback Machine.